how do i remove suspension bolts that are reaally stuck?

[snowball1288]

ok i FINALLY figured out why my civic is always leaning to one side... someone installed one of the driver's side rear lower suspension arm UPSIDE DOWN. i kid you not. so i put the car on stands and tried to remove the bolts one which the arm pivots, but they were stuck realllly good. i sprayed a lot of liquidwrench everywhere and waited for about a half hour... still nothing. then i took out hte breaker bar, put a pipe on the end for extra leverage, and had to stop because my breaker bar was bending. how do you get these things off?!!

[BullShifter]

Originally Posted by snowball1288

ok i FINALLY figured out why my civic is always leaning to one side... someone installed one of the driver's side rear lower suspension arm UPSIDE DOWN. i kid you not. so i put the car on stands and tried to remove the bolts one which the arm pivots, but they were stuck realllly good. i sprayed a lot of liquidwrench everywhere and waited for about a half hour... still nothing. then i took out hte breaker bar, put a pipe on the end for extra leverage, and had to stop because my breaker bar was bending. how do you get these things off?!!

You won't get it out that way. Cutting the bolt off or using a torch is about the only way. there is a metal sleeve inside the bushing which is completely rusted to the bolt. Chances are you wil also need a new bushing. Don't worry it happens all the time!

[GEESERTEG]

An impact wrench did wonders for me. Put some heat to it aswell. Using a breaker bar just didn't work but the vibration of the impact did the trick. I also used some PB Blaster spray similar to liquidwrench. The trick is not to get into a hurry with it. Work the impact forward then reverse and so on.

[SilverY2KCivic]

FYI, one of the arms IS upside down, they come like that from the factory but that's not why your car leans. The arm is like that because it's WAY more cost effective to make ONE arm instead of 2 if the mount points are exactly the same anyways. This is in the case of if you mean it looks like you have 2 say "left" side arms. But if you mean the arm was installed with the shock fork mounting point facing up HIGHER than the wheel/hub mount point, then yes it's on upside down.

[snowball1288]

yeah, i figured they're both the exact same arm, but i can see that since the arms are slightly curved the mounting hole on the right side is slightly lower on the passenger side than it is on the drivers side. so yeah.... when its fixed it will look "backwards" but not "upside down". if that makes any sense....

anyhow, i dont have an impact wrench or torch, and i think id better let someone who really knew what they were doing take a stab at it. hopefully i can get it to the shop and get that, and a valve adjustment done.

[iCivic]

like someone said, it's the bushing, autozone rents a bushing driver set and it's easy and you put down like forty dollars and you get it all back when you take back the tools, i'm havin to do the same thing cuz one of my bolts broke in the bushing